"The Message"

  The charge is laid down: "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season..." (II Tim. 4:2) There is a message to preach and that message preached depends on messengers. The messengers of God are instructed what to preach and no matter how it is received, preach the word. There are writers of books and other such forms of communication and they can serve a purpose but if we would be careful and pay attention, few people come to God in Jesus Christ apart from actual contact with an actual person in whom the message is embodied!

  The word of the Lord must be preached! For a man with a message from Jesus or about Jesus that he himself is not taking seriously is being a hypocrite. There can be fine men but with no gospel to tell has little to offer. There can be fine men with merely moral advice and right values but that too has little to offer. There can be fine men that are compassionate and generous but with no message about Jesus Christ is sub-par. What we need to realize is the message of the gospel that raced through that first century wasn't just a lot of nice people saying nice things. It was nice people with a message about Jesus Christ! There is simply too much fluff and not enough substance about Jesus Christ.

  What brought the idol worshipers down in many cities? The word of Jesus Christ embodied in living messengers that were convicted of the message of Jesus Christ. What turned the world upside down? The message of Jesus Christ. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends, slaves, free, Jews, Greeks, Romans all found freedom in the message of Jesus Christ. When the Lord instructed His messengers to preach the word, that word embodied Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's where the majority miss it!